Added to Creative Stoke, 15th February 2011

15.02.11Staffordshire Festival of Performing Arts will be a brand new festival dedicated to the performing arts. The dates are 8th-11th May 2011, and the festival will be covering the four main disciplines including music, film, drama and dance. The 11th of May will be a day dedicated to film, held at the Stoke Film Theatre art-house cinema at Stoke-on-Trent. If you are interested in submitting either a short or feature-length film please email Emma Fox a link to an online copy, plus your contact details, at: staffordshirefestival@gmail.com

15.02.11
Shugborough has announced its 2011 lunchtime lectures series. Including Chris Copp on Staffordshire Arts & Museum Service, taking on 6th July 2011 about “Play, Clothes, Health and Shoes: the new community galleries at the County Museum”.

15.02.11
Job: Paintings in Hospitals is seeking a Regional Co-ordinator to support the development of its loan schemes in the West Midlands. This is a freelance job, at an estimated four hours per week. The role may include some evenings and weekends. For a full job description please email: mail@paintingsinhospitals.org.uk

15.02.11
The Shelton Hospital (South Staffordshire & Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust) in Shrewsbury is seeking an unpaid artist-in-residence to create more of a creative buzz in their occupational therapy centre. They are offering a well-lit ground-floor space that would be ideal as an artist’s studio. The successful artist would be obliged to provide an agreed number of art sessions for patients, carers and staff (to supplement, not to replace existing provision). Expressions of interest should be made in the first instance to Jessica Kent, Arts for Health Co-ordinator, Shelton Hospital: jessica.kent@sssft.nhs.uk

15.02.11
SkillSet’s craft and technical wing has announced a change to the craft and technical bursaries. These are open to people working in TV broadcasting. The bursaries will now allow applicants to select their own courses, so long as they fall within the funding criteria.

15.02.11
The government has announced a proposed “Community Right to Reclaim”, under which members of the public would be able to force local Councils and other organisations to sell disused buildings to community trusts or social enterprises….

“By the summer, a new one-stop [online] shop will provide citizens with information about empty land and buildings they can develop to improve their local area.”

The website will probably be along the lines of Landshare and SparePlace. This new community power would seem to have obvious implications for those seeking to find new creative industries uses for disused heritage buildings that are situated in strong communities. There will also be an accompanying “Community Right to Challenge”, allowing people to take over specific poorly-performing services provided by local councils or their subcontractors, a power that may even have implications for creative industries support-services.

15.02.11
Are you able to offer one-off arts workshops for individuals and small groups? The School of Everything is a rapidly developing open UK directory of such teachers.